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Explore content from blog posts to technical white papers gathered together for your convenience. All written by Altium's community of PCB design experts.

Freelance PCB Designers: What You Need to Know to Thrive Freelance PCB Designers: What You Need to Know to Thrive If your career as a hardware engineer is getting stagnant, you may be tempted to switch careers or turn into a freelancer. After all, the major difference between working full-time and freelancing is not having the 9-to-5 routine and being able to work on projects while sipping a piña colada at the beach. When you’re equipped with the top-notch design skills and knowledge of a hardware designer, what could go wrong? This is exactly what I thought Read Article
First Impressions Migrating to Altium Designer 18 First Impressions Migrating to Altium Designer 18 Updating a software package is risky business – and not just because of new bugs that could be added. It’s also possible that a perfectly working new feature looks like a bug from the perspective of your workflow. I’ve recently upgraded to Altium Designer® (AD18) and released a new design with it, finding a few nuances. And not just the new color scheme (FYI: AD18 doesn’t support the legacy skin colors, but may in future versions). Overall, the Read Article
Soothe PCB Schematic Library Management Pains with Straightforward Software Soothe PCB Schematic Library Management Pains with Straightforward Software Outdated schematic library management processes cause a large bottleneck for the design group. These processes are often based on tools that are not up-to-date with current design methodologies and technologies and are therefore limited in what they can do. In the same way that a compact car isn’t going to be able to pull a heavy trailer, using an outdated library management system isn’t going to be able to handle the heavy work-load either Read Article
Ducks in a Row: Process Control and Document Traceability in One Place Ducks in a Row: Process Control and Document Traceability in One Place Louis Pasteur captured the essence of complicated endeavors when he stated that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” Don’t miss opportunities for excellence when faced with complex tasks. Designing and building printed circuit boards and their assemblies is a complex task, made up of many meticulous endeavors. You could say that unified PCA documentation and communication favors successful outcomes when building products. Document types and Read Article
Why is Spread Glass popular? Chris Hunrath from Insulectro Why is Spread Glass popular? Chris Hunrath from Insulectro Why is spread glass popular? What can you use instead of FR4? Listen and learn from industry veteran Chris Hunrath, who joins us from the San Jose Insulectro facility for a deep dive into what material sets are used in printed circuit board assembly and manufacturing. Get expert insights and learn about new materials on the market to help with your PCB design before going to fabrication and assembly. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode Read Article
Obsolescence Management of Electronic Components Throughout Product Lifetime Obsolescence Management of Electronic Components Throughout Product Lifetime I know what you’re thinking. Why can’t my manager automate a process for obsolescence management of electronic components? It would be nice to have one database compatible with each user’s software. Until then, I’ve set up weekly meetings so stakeholders can collect germane information about components into a common spreadsheet. It has been working but I would like to automate with software that all departments can use effectively. Let’s face it Read Article
Keep the Petals on: Optimizing Daisy Chain Wired Communication Keep the Petals on: Optimizing Daisy Chain Wired Communication As a child, I was fascinated by trains. I remember staring down an empty railway for hours, simply waiting for a train to pass by. From my youthful perspective at the time, it was magical how the train never fell off the track despite essentially being a moving chain consisting of many . Although I eventually outgrew my obsession with trains, I became enamored by the daisy chain style of wiring for communication in electronics. As my career as an Read Article
DC Power Supply Protection from Unexpected Damage and Inconvenience DC Power Supply Protection from Unexpected Damage and Inconvenience When it comes to parenting, I might not be the best role model. This isn’t because I don’t take good care of my only son; it’s because I’m the stereotypical overprotective dad. I fuss over tiny bruises and rush for a digital thermometer at the slightest hint of a fever. Unable to stop worrying about how my son will adapt and get along with other preschoolers, I even become an occasional nuisance at his nursery. Over time, I’m starting to realize Read Article
Collaborative Design Software: Create a Schematic Symbol for any Component Collaborative Design Software: Create a Schematic Symbol for any Component We’ve all been knee deep in a schematic capture session when we are suddenly hard-walled by a missing component in our project library. You check other libraries to see if the part exists but find everything except success. What do you do? Thankfully, these situations are mitigated by Altium Designer’s software solutions. With tools designed for you to work as intuitively and efficiently as you can, you will be cruising in no time. Creating your Read Article
How to Use Altium Designer to Quickly Place Components How to Use Altium Designer to Quickly Place Components “A place for everything, everything in its place” are profound words by the incomparable Benjamin Franklin that are especially applicable when applied to component placement on PCBs and in your Altium library loader. Let’s see how to use Altium Designer to put these words into action for your PCB design Placing Components Directly with no Schematic Whether you are creating a relatively simple printed circuit board or adding to an existing design Read Article
PCB Design Applications Thanks to advanced PCB design tool technology, designers are able to save both time and money. Benefits to the Unified Data Model Approach include not just time savings, but the potential of an evolving suite of PCB design tools. Use that time to explore new tips and techniques. Click on the presentation PDF above to read more about PCB Design Applications in this Altium Ebook Bundle. Or read the original, full-length content here: Untangle Download PDF
The Anniversary Edition OnTrack Newsletter April 2018 The Anniversary Edition OnTrack Newsletter April 2018 OnTrack Newsletter April 2018 VOL. 2 No 1 Welcome to the one-year anniversary edition of the Altium® OnTrack newsletter! In celebration, our team decided to make this the reader’s choice edition by sharing the top three most read articles from Rock Stars and Superheroes and Makerspace for this past year. We also have a brand new video by Ben Jordan on Multi-board: Partitioning and Planning, and a fresh batch of Brain Food and Regional News below Read Article
Using Platform Unification Removes Need for BOM Analysis Using Platform Unification Removes Need for BOM Analysis One of my friends laments that her husband has three versions of the same flat-head screwdriver. He doesn’t put his tools away so when he goes looking for a flat-head screwdriver, he can’t find one let alone three. Rather than spend his day looking for the lost tool, he conveniently drives to the hardware store and buys another. Enterprise databases are prone to the same redundancies, that’s why BOM analysis is important. Over time, designers Read Article
Interface an LED With an 8051 Microcontroller: Processes and Applications Interface an LED With an 8051 Microcontroller: Processes and Applications When my professors saw my first electronics project, they weren’t too hopeful about my future as a design engineer. With hundreds of jumper wires clumsily soldered onto a prototyping board, my feeble attempt at making a ham radio barely passed as a joke. I was learning about the dot matrix, pic microcontroller, and RGB led lights. Everyone has to start from the beginning! Thankfully, I’ve come a long way since those days. If you’re starting your Read Article
Tips for Minimizing Power Consumption in Your Embedded System Tips for Minimizing Power Consumption in Your Embedded System For years, I always forgot to turn off the lights and fans at my house. Despite initially denying that constantly using these appliances significantly increased my electricity usage, I eventually broke my bad habit and began turning off every little switch. After all, being more prudent about my electricity usage reduces my monthly bills and promotes a greener earth. Unfortunately, minimizing system power consumption in an embedded system Read Article
Flex PCB Vs Rigid PCB: How Adaptable is Your Design Approach Flex PCB Vs Rigid PCB: How Adaptable is Your Design Approach After working on multiple projects for a demanding client, I often relieve my stress by kicking it out at a local martial arts gym. When I was a teenager, I was quite flexible and had no trouble landing kicks. These days, however, my kicks are somewhat restrained by my rigid legs; I’m simply not as flexible as I used to be. Of course, flexibility and rigidity are important concepts outside of the martial arts gym as well. While designing PCBs Read Article
Beyond Unified Workflow: True Unified PCB Design Beyond Unified Workflow: True Unified PCB Design When it’s crunch time my only focus is on getting my PCB design to the finish line correctly and out the door to manufacturing - unified workflow comes later. I know from experience that there are a number of obstacles in that can get in my way and cause a delay. You know, unavailable parts, feature creepage - I’m used these obstacles, they are part of the job. But I am routinely stressed by needing to manipulate different design tools and data Read Article